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Ana R. Chelariu
Romanian Folklore and its Archaic Heritage
Ana R. Chelariu
Romanian Folklore
and its Archaic
Heritage
A cultural and Linguistic
Comparative Study
Ana R. Chelariu
Emerson, NJ, USA
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“Aion is a child at play, playing draughts; the kingship is a child’s.”
—Heraclitus, Fr. 52
To my mother
Acknowledgements
1 I ntroduction 3
2 Brief
Overview of Recent Theories on the
Indo-Europeans’ Homeland 9
xi
xii Contents
9 M
yth and Fairy Tales 63
12 C
osmogony: Fârtat and Nefârtat, the Romanian Twins
among the Indo-European Divine Twins 83
13 God
‘Dumnezeu’ and the Creation of Earth, Sky,
Mountains in Romanian Beliefs 97
14 Th
e Romanian Goddess Ileana Simziana: The Sun and
the Moon Marriage109
15 The
Sun and a Mortal Girl Marriage: The Romanian
Song of Cicoarea ‘The Chicory’121
16 The
‘Deer Hunt’ Motif in the Romanian Wedding
Ceremony125
17 R
omanian Feminine Spirits iele, rusalii, șoimane141
18 Th
e Romanian Păcală among the Indo-European
Tricksters145
19 Th
e Hero Slaying the Dragon in the Romanian Song
Iovan Iorgovan153
Contents xiii
20 Youth
Rivalry Fights: From Nart Sagas to the Romanian
Song Mioriţa169
23 The
Romanian Folk Story “The Enchanted Pig”: The
Motif ‘Beauty and the Beast’199
24 Indo-European
Social Structures and Youth Initiation
Rites in Romanian Folk Customs205
25 F
ather Christmas: Romanian Moş Crăciun—A Solar Myth215
26 C
onclusions229
27 Th
e Daco-Romanian Cultural Vocabulary237
A
ppendix257
B
ibliography389
I ndex411
About the Author
xv
xvi About the Author
adj. adjective
adv. adverb
Alb Albanian
arch archaic
Arm Armenian
ARom Aromanian
Bret Breton, Celtic
Bulg Bulgarian
Bur Burushaski
Corn Cornish, Celtic
Czech Czech
DEX.RO Dicționarul Explicativ al Limbii Române online
DRom Daco-Romanian
Dutch modern Dutch
f. feminine
Gaul Gaulish
Goth Gothic
Grk Greek
Hit Hitite
Ice Icelandic
IEW Indogermanisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch
Illyr Illyrian
inf. infinitive
xix
xx Abbreviations
Iran Iranian
IstrRom Istro-Romanian
JIES Journal of Indo-European Studies
Lat Latin
Latv Latvian
Lig Ligurian
Lith Lithuanian
Luv Luvian
m. masculine
MA Mallory & Adams
Maced Macedonian
MDutch West Law Germanic
ME Middle English
MglRom Megleno-Romanian
MHG Middle High German
MPers Middle Persi
n. noun
NE modern English
NHG New Hogh German
NIce New Icelandic
Norw Norwegian
NPres New Persian
NWels New Welsh
OCimmr Old Cimmerian
OCS Old Church Slavonic
OE Old English
OIce Old Icelandic
OInd Old Indian
OIr Old Irish
OIran Old Iranian
OLat Old Latin
ON Old Norse
OPers Old Persian
OPrus Old Prussian
ORus Old Russian
Osc Oscan
Oss Ossetic
Phryg Phrygian
Abbreviations xxi
PIE Proto-Indo-European
Pk Pokorny
pl. plural
PN personal name
Pol Polish
PSl Proto Slav
RN river name
Rus Russian
Serb Serbian
sg. singular
Skt Sanskrit
Slovk Slovakian
Slovn Slovenian
Thrac Thracian
Toch A B Tocharian A and B
Trk Turkish
Ukr Ukrainian
Umb Umbrian
v. verb
Part I
Getae-Dacians History and Religion
in Ancient Sources
1
Introduction
By the end of the first millennium BCE, the Carpathian Mountains and
the surrounding hills were populated with people living out of the deep
vast forests and fertile valleys, along fast-moving springs, raising their
families and tending their livestock, all the while transmitting their cul-
tural heritage from one generation to another. The little that we know
about this large group comes mostly from Greek sources, beginning with
Herodotus (Histories 4. 93–96), who groups these people named Getae
into the large tribes of Thracians, sharing the same language, customs,
and religious beliefs (ibid.), all part of the Indo-European group, In his
short depiction, the Greek historian describes them as “the most manly
and law-abiding of the Thracian tribes”, recounting one of the rituals that
gives us a glimpse into the beliefs these people held: According to his
account, every five years one man was selected from their community to
serve as a messenger to god. The messenger would be held by his arms
and legs and swung in the air before being launched over three spikes. If
he was impaled on the spikes and succumbed to his wounds, it was inter-
preted that their god was showing them favor; but if he did not die that
meant the man was wicked, and they had to continue until they appeased
their god with a proper sacrifice, a better man. When thunder and light-
ning occurred, Getae would aim their arrows toward the clouds,
threatening the sky with angry cries. Their supreme god was Zalmoxis, (also
spelt Salmoxis), a Getae who, it is said, was a slave of the Greek Pythagoras,
as Herodotus writes: §1.1.1: 4.94: (1) “I understand from the Greeks who
live beside the Hellespont and Pontus, that this Salmoxis was a man who
was once a slave in Samos, his master being Pythagoras son of Mnesarchus.”
As the historian continues, after being freed and gaining great wealth,
‘Salmoxis’ returned to his country and began teaching the Pythagorean
doctrine of immortality. He built a hall in which people would gather and
listen to his teachings (3) “that neither he nor his guests nor any of their
descendants would ever die, but that they would go to a place where they
would live forever and have all good things” (ibid.). While he was teaching,
he (Zalmoxis) had built an underground chamber where he vanished and
lived for three years (4). The Thracians mourned him for dead, but (5) “in
the fourth year he appeared to the Thracians, and thus they came to believe
what ‘Salmoxis’ had told them” (ibid.). Getae believed in immortality, and
after death they go to Zalmoxis, §1.1.3: 4.96. “who is called also Gebeleizis
by some among them” (ibid.). The Romanian historian Vasile Pârvan in his
extensive work Getica opposes the Greek historians who attributed human
condition to Zalmoxis, in the end agreeing with Herodotus on the Getae’s
beliefs in a god named Zalmoxis. (Pârvan 1982: p. 92)
Centuries later, Strabo (Geography 7. 3. 12) called the tribes living in
the western parts of the Carpathians toward German territories “daoi,
dakoi”, which directs the search to the PIE [Pokorny (1959)
Indogermanisches etymologiscches worterbuch (IEW) 235] *dhau- ‘to press,
squeeze, strangle’ > DRom n. Daci collective ethnonym tribe name, Lat
Dāci; Phryg δάος; other DRom developments dulău n.m. ‘big aggressive
dog, shepherd dog’; dolcă n. f. ‘bitch’, with cognates, as per Pokorny:
“Phryg δάος … ὑπο Υρυγων λύκος Hes. (therefrom the people’s name
Δᾶοι, Dāci), Lyd Καν-δαύλης (κυν-άγχης ‘Indian Hemp, dogbane,
plant poisonous to dogs’), compare Καν-δάων, name of Thrac god of
war, Illyr PN Can-davia; dhaunos ‘wolf ’ as ‘shrike’; Lat Faunus; Grk
θαῦνον θηρίον (Hesykhios); Illyr Daunus therefrom Δαύνιοι, inhabit-
ant of Daunia; compare Thrac Δαύνιον τεῖχος); Gk. Zεὺς Θαύλιος, that
is, ‘shrike’; with ablaut Grk θώς, θω(F)ός ‘jackal’, maybe Alb dac ‘cat’;
Phryg. δάος; Goth af-dauiÞs ‘rended, mangled, afflicted’; OCS davljǫ,
daviti ‘embroider, choke, strangle’, Russ davítь ‘pressure, press, choke,
crush’, dávka ‘crush’”. The Bulgarian linguist V. Georgiev (1960, p. 48)
1 Introduction 5
finds a Dacian plant name δαχινα (Diosc. 4, 16, nv [W. 2, 183]) λυχου
χαρδια ‘wolf heart’ IE *dhău-k-ino adj ‘of wolf ’ < *dhăwo-s ‘wolf ’ > tribe’s
name Δαχοι, IE. *dh ~u-ko—‘wolf ’; older name Δαοι; περσον∋σ ναμε
Dăvos, Daus < IE *dhăwo-s ‘wolf ’ > town Δαουσ-δαυα in Moesia
Inferior, and their close relatives who occupied the eastern parts toward
the Pontic region the “Getae”.
Strabo states that Zamolxis (sic!) preached to his countrymen about
immortality and vegetarianism, based on Pythagorean ideas (Geography
7. 3–5). Zalmoxis’ teachings on immortality are confirmed by Plato
(Charmides 156d–e), who also mentions the highly respected medical
teachings of the prophet.
The Getae-Dacian religious beliefs in a supreme deity, the god,
Zalmoxis in some documents, or Zamolxis in others, must have impressed
the Greeks with his story and preaching, as it is seen in their writings. The
god’s name is subject of endless controversies mainly due to the different
ways in which it was transcribed in many Greek works, varying from
Zalmoxis to Samolxis, to Zamolxis. The Romanian researcher, Popa-
Lisseanu (2007) published translations of Roman and Greek documents
pertaining to the Dacian history, including antique references to the
Dacian god Zamolxis. From his work I extract the following chronologi-
cal list of writers using one or the other of these forms: in Herodotus,
Histories, in fifth century BCE, we find Zalmoxis and Salmoxis (see
above); Porphyry (1920), Life of Pythagoras, third century BCE uses
Zamolxis: “14. Pythagoras had another youthful disciple from Thrace.
Zamolxis was he named because he was born wrapped in a bear’s skin, in
Thracian called Zalmus.” Even though Porphyrios uses the god’s name as
Zamolxis he attempts the first etymology of this name, in a Thracian
form zalmus meaning ‘bear’s skin’. Other ancient writers using the form
Zalmoxis are Diodorus Siculus, first century BCE, Apuleius, second cen-
tury CE, and Jordanes in the sixth century CE.
Among those using the form Zamolxis are: Poseidonios, first century
BCE, a native to Apamea, Syria; Strabo, 64 or 63 BCE–24 CE, geogra-
pher and historian who lived in Asia Minor; Lucian of Samosata, second
century CE. Starting with the third century CE, the form Zamolxis is
more commonly used by authors such as Diogenes Laertios, third century
AD, or the Emperor Julian the Apostate, fourth century CE. Addressing
6 A. R. Chelariu
to unify their tribes under a state that stretched from the north of the
Carpathians to the Haemus Mountains in the west, from the mountain-
side of the Hercynian Forest to the Black Sea and the Tyregetae region.
After Boerebista’s death the state disintegrated into smaller states, approx-
imately on the same geographic territory as modern-day Romania,
including: Transylvania, Moldova, Maramureș, Banat, Oltenia, and
Muntenia. Following his predecessor, Decebalus unified these tribes yet
again under the Dacian kingdom with its capital at Sarmizegetusa Regia.
Their constant raids south of the Danube River gave the Roman Empire
enough reason to start military campaigns against them. After two bloody
wars, by the year 106 CE the emperor Trajan conquered Dacia, and the
colonization and Romanization process began (Pârvan 1972).
Despite thousands of years of turbulent history in this region, the peo-
ple of Romania withstood the test of times, continuing their traditions
and creating a rich oral culture. Currently, the folkloric materials col-
lected mostly in the nineteenth century are regarded by more and more
researchers as hiding archaic patterns, making a case for the Romanian
songs and stories to be considered as potential sources of information in
searching mythical motifs. Romanian folklore, as well as the folklore of
other European countries, with careful investigation, can be a valuable
resource for shedding new light on the study of European and ultimately
Indo-European mythology. This work is an attempt to identify mythic
traits that endured from the archaic times emerging into the Romanian
oral tradition.
References
Eliade, M. (1972). Zalmoxis, the Vanishing God: Comparative Studies in the
Religions and Folklore of Dacia and Eastern Europe. University of Chicago Press.
Georgiev, V. I. (1960). Raporturile dintre limbile dacă, tracă şi frigiană. Studii
clasice II, Societatea de studii clasice RPR, p. 39.
Herodotus. (1920). Histories (A. D. Godley, Trans.). Harvard University Press.
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgibin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.0
1.0126;query=chapter%3D%23103;chunk=chapter;layout=;loc=1.102.1
8 A. R. Chelariu
p. 147). According to him, the farmers from Anatolia did not spread into
Europe the Proto-Indo-European language:
PIE must be dated not to the Mesolithic but after the beginning of the
Neolithic era, so after 6500 BCE in Europe, because many Indo-European
(IE) cognate word roots securely assigned to PIE (Mallory & Adams, 2006:
139–172) had meanings related to Neolithic economies (cow, bull, calf,
ewe, ram, lamb, wool, milk products, ard/plow, domesticated grain). The
speakers of the most archaic recoverable form of PIE, preserved in the
Anatolian IE languages, were already familiar with agriculture and domes-
ticated animals—and the pre-Neolithic WHG were not. (Anthony &
Brown, 2017)
According to this model, the PIE language was dead by 2500 BCE.
Moreover, Anthony presents a scenario in which the diffusion of the
Proto-Indo-European language that resulted into the formation of the
Indo-European dialects, occurred in the following sequence (Anthony,
2007, p. 305): the dispersal of Yamnaya horizon began with Afanasievo
culture spreading toward the east around 3700–3500 BCE with Pre-
Tocharian, followed at about 3300 BCE by the diffusion across the
Pontic-Caspian region. The large migration from Western Yamnaya to
Danube valley and Carpathian basin took place from 3100 to 3000 BCE
during the Early Bronze Age, presumably with the Pre-Italic and Pre-
Celtic dialects. Around 2800–2600 BCE, the Yamnaya horizon pene-
trated the Corded Ware cultures northwest of the Pontic region, giving
leeway to Germanic and Balto-Slavic dialects. The last diffusion took
place around 2200–2000 BCE when the late Yamnaya-Poltavka cultures
went east, separating into what are known as the Indo-Iranian speakers.
The core of economic exchanges between the steppe tribes and the
Anatolian settlers in the southeast and eastern part of Romania was mate-
rial culture in nature, including: pottery, copperware, cattle, and textiles.
Anthony argues that the Indo-European infiltration in Europe was suc-
cessful, aside from violence, due to the employment of a specific system
of contractual patron–client relations and guest–host agreements enforced
by lavish public rituals that impressed their neighbors and led to building
of social and economic bonds. The reconstructed Proto-Indo-European
vocabulary hints at the importance of the oath-bound rituals for their
14 A. R. Chelariu
relations with gods, other members of the tribe, and even with people
from different ethnic groups, or other outsiders. Such rituals reflect
archaic European traditional cultures, and are recognized in a well-
documented Romanian custom called judecata la hotare ‘the judgment at
the border’ (Vulcǎnescu, 1972, p. 67), which took place under an old
sacred oak, known in the Indo-European tradition as a sacred tree.
F. Kortlandt in his recent work (Kortlandt, 2018) proposes several
points that highlight the importance of the areas populated by the
Romanians’ ancestors:
References
Anthony, D. W. (2007). The Horse the Wheel and the Language. Oxford and
Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Anthony, D. W., & Brown, D. R. (2017). Molecular Archaeology and Indo-
European Linguistics: Impressions from New Data. https://www.academia.
edu/32927784/Molecular_archaeology_and_Indo_European_linguistics_
Impressions_from_new_data
Dioscorides Pedanius, of Anazarbos. (1934). Greek Herbal of Dioscorides
(J. Goodyer & R. T. Gunther, Eds.). (pdf ). Oxford University Press.
Gimbutas, M. (1982). The Goddesses and Gods of Old Europe: Myths and Cult
Images. University of California Press.
Kortlandt, F. (2018). The Expansion of the Indo-European Languages # 322. www.
academia.edu
Mallory, J. P. (1989/1996). In Search of the Indo-Europeans, Language, Archaeology
and Myth. London: Thame and Hudson Ltd.
Mallory, J. P., & Adams, D. Q. (Eds.). (1997). Encyclopedia of Indo-European
Culture. London and Chicago. Fitzroy Dearborn.
Mallory, J. P., & Adams, D. Q. (2006). The Oxford Introduction to Proto-Indo-
European and the Proto-Indo-European World. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Renfrew, C. (1987). Archaeology and Language: The Puzzle of Indo-European
Origins. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Vulcǎnescu, R. (1972). Coloana Ceriului. Bucharest: Editura Academiei Române.
3
Cucuteni-Tripolye: The Indo-European
Homeland?
…the evidence for material culture seems to fit best with a classic sedentary
farming culture like the CT culture, rather than a semi-nomadic culture we
would expect on the steppe although the evidence cannot be claimed to be
conclusive. (Kristinsson, 2012, p. 389)
Another argument that Kristinsson brings against the elite groups’ infu-
sion is that the warriors on horse carts are recorded around 2000 BCE,
and the IE dispersal begins around the fourth millennium.
Expansions of such large scale can generate language changes particu-
larly in the agricultural societies lacking a powerful organized state. Thus,
Kristinsson argues that the beginning of the IE expansion was the result
of a large growth of populations on the west side of the CT culture region,
which created the need for new land, determining the gradual spread
toward the eastern steppe. Additional consequence of the growth in pop-
ulation density was the intensifying of the internecine fights among tribes
shown in the increased number of arrowheads discovered around the CT
sites, which could be the result of competition among groups within the
society.
Another aspect brought into the discussion by the author is that
around the fourth millennium some important agricultural technology
advancements were made, including the plough and the wheel, the use of
oxen for traction vehicles, the presence of a new breed of sheep richer in
wool, together with an increase in farmers’ production and use of milk
and dairy in Europe and West Asia. All these innovations had a conse-
quence in terms of population growth, causing pressure within the CT
society that led to successive invasions eastwards beginning with 3500
BCE, culminating in the colonization of the steppe lands. As a result, the
CT culture started to break up, and Corded Ware cultures emerged in
northern Europe, characterized by a semi-nomadic lifestyle. The Yamna
culture emerged in the East adapting to the new conditions; but both
cultures retained identifiable characteristics of the CT culture from which
they descended. Kristinsson’s argument is that in the process of coloniza-
tion of the steppe regions the newcomers changed their way of life, adapt-
ing to the new environmental conditions. The big differences in the
quality of the CT ceramic and the ceramics of Corded Ware or Yamna
cultures are due, as the author believes, to the fact that the production of
ceramic was in general a women’s occupation, while population move-
ment was preponderantly male-oriented: Men supposedly formed new
families with local women that were not acquainted with the style and
quality of the CT ceramic culture.
20 A. R. Chelariu
dog, snake, ram; or, the vegetation, trees, leaves, or the water as the wavy
lines, all designs so well detailed and analyzed by Marija Gimbutas (1982,
p. 169) in her monumental work on this subject.
Even though the symbolic designs offer information of the CT peo-
ples’ beliefs, all the efforts that the Romanian archaeologists made to
decipher in more detail messages regarding the socioeconomic structures
among the CT populations, encountered serious difficulties. The absence
of cemeteries among the thousands of villages raises many questions of
what they were doing with their dead. There are a few cases revealing
human bones deposited under house floors, but these are inconclusive.
The themes on the Cucuteni ceramics that may be considered mythical
expressions do not seem explicitly related to the IE culture, the most
identifiable being the two pair figures, believed to represent either a god-
dess with her consort, or a mother and daughter pair, which plausibly
could be linked to the Demeter-Persephone Greek myth, a relation that
may not be representative of IE mythology.
The importance of fire in the Cucuteni-Tripolye culture, is exemplified
particularly by the practice of complete burning of settlements every
75–80 years, together with the ritual breaking of the ceramics and crema-
tion. Such practices could be considered sufficient grounds to speculate
on a hypothetical relation between these practices and the cult of light
and fire in the IE culture.
On the linguistic level, the DRom language retained a few essential IE
concepts related to fire; DRom n. scrum (with prothetic s- crum, frequent
in language) ‘singe, cinder, ash’ < PIE (IEW 571 *k(e)r-em-) *kr-em-
‘burn’, with cognates in Latin cremō, −üre ‘burn’, Umbr. Krematra, pl
*crematra ‘kind of vessel for frying meat’ (Orel, 1998: Albanian shk-
rumb, pl shkrumba ‘black ashes’; PAlb iš-krum). Another example is
DRom n. jar ‘glowing coal, ember’, Dacian Γέρμαζα (Germaza),
Γερμἰζερα (Germizera) < *gwhermós PIE MA 1. *g(e)ulo- ‘fire, glowing
coal’; 2. *gwher- ‘warm’, *gh’ermós adj. ‘hot’, with cognates in OIr gūal
‘coal’; NE coal; Alb zjarr|i ‘fire’, Alb zjarm, Arm Jě rm Jě r; Latv. gařme,
Gr. θερμὀς, ´fire, heat´; OCS goreti ‘burn’; or, DRom n. văpaie ‘flame,
shooting flame’ < PIE MA *u̯ep- ‘throw, throw out’, IEW 1149–1150
*uēp-: uǝp- (*suekʷ-) ‘to blow; to soar, with cognates in Skt vàpati ‘throw
out, scatter’, vàpra ‘earthen wall’, vaprā ‘fireplace’; Av vafra, OIran vafr,
3 Cucuteni-Tripolye: The Indo-European Homeland? 23
Iran bafr ‘snowdrift?’, OInd causative vāpayati ‘makes blow’; Lat vapor
(old vapōs) ‘vapor, heat’; Alb vapë ‘summer heat’; DRom n. dogoare
‘blaze, heat, summer heat’, v. dogori ‘to emanate heat, blaze’ < IEW
240–241 *dhegʷh- ‘to burn, *day *dhōgwho- ‘summer heat’, (*dhogʷh-
lo-lā) *dhegwh- ‘burn, be hot,’ with cognates in OIr doghaim ‘burn’, daig
‘flame’; Lat foveō ‘heat, cherish’; Lith degù ‘burn’; dāgas ‘summer heat’;
OCS žegǫ ‘burn’; Alb djeg ‘burn’, ndez ‘kindle’; Grk tephra ‘ash’; Av
dažati ‘burns’; Skt dagdhá-ḥ (= Lith. dègtas), Kaus. dăhayati; dăha-ḥ
‘blaze, heat’, niduăgha-ḥ ‘heat, summer’, Pers. dăɣ ‘burn brand’; Av.
daxša- m. ‘blaze” dáhati ‘burns’; Toch tsäk- ‘burn’
Yet, if the Cucuteni-Tripolye culture was the result of the IE group, it
will be a challenge to prove it, and, for that matter, an investigation of the
Romanian heritage could help resolve this impasse.
References
Gimbutas, M. (1982). The Goddesses and Gods of Old Europe; Myths and Cult
Images. Berkeley Los Angeles: University of California Press.
Kristinsson, A. (2012). Indo-European Expansion Cycles. Journal of Indo-European
Studies, 40(3–4), Fall/Winter. Institute for the Studies of Man.
Orel, V. (1998). Albanian Etymological Dictionary. Leiden. Boston Kohl: Brill.
4
Some Recent Genetic
and Archaeological Conclusions
even greater extent by the speakers during economic and social contacts,
transhumance, ceramic and metal commerce, especially if we consider
that these contacts were at a time when the Indo-European languages
were less differentiated. As Kortlandt (2018, p. 228) notes, “the linguistic
evidence takes precedence over archaeological and genetic data, which
give no information about the languages spoken and can only support
the linguistic evidence”. Language studies together with comparative
analysis of the mythological traits may help us form a better picture of the
archaic societies of Southeast Europe.
References
Anthony, D. W. (2007). The Horse the Wheel and the Language. Princeton:
Princeton University Press.
Gimbutas, M. (1977). The First Wave of Eurasian Steppe Pastoralists into Copper
Age Europe. Washington DC: JIES, 5: 277–338. Institute for the Study of Man.
Gimbutas, M. (1982). The Goddesses and Gods of Old Europe; Myths and Cult
Images. Berkeley Los Angeles: University of California Press.
Kortlandt, F. (2018). The Expansion of the Indo-European Languages. # 322.
www.academia.edu
Kristiansen, K., et al. (2020). Kinship and Social Organization in Copper Age
Europe. Across-Disciplinary Analysis of Archaeology, DNA, Isotopes, and
Anthropology from Two Bell Beaker Cemeteries. Sjo¨gren K.-G., Olalde, I.,
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pone.0241278
Reich, D. (2018). Who We Are and How We Got Here: Ancient DNA and the New
Science of the Human Past. New York: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.
Renfrew, C. (1987). Archaeology and Language: The Puzzle of Indo-European
Origins. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
5
Daco-Romanian Language: An
Indo-European Branch
At this juncture, I should add a few lines addressing the history of the
language spoken by the population of today’s Romania, known in antiq-
uity as Dacian, which was classified by linguists as an Indo-European
language. Some researchers consider Dacian an independent language,
some a close relative of the Thracian language, some closer to Illyrian.
There are also those who claim that the Pre-Indo-European language/
languages, spoken in this area before the Indo-European arrival, should
be considered when analyzing the modern language, even though such
attempt would address a society dissipated into the deep darkness of times.
The first information on the Getae-Dacian and Thracian relation is
found in the Histories of the Greek writer Herodotus (4. 94) who states
that “the Getae are the bravest and the most law-abiding of all Thracians”.
The geographer Strabo places the Getae along the Danube on the moun-
tain side of Hercynian Forest:
As for the southern part of Germany beyond the Albis, the portion which
is just contiguous to that river is occupied by the Suevi; then immediately
adjoining this is the land of the Getae, which, though narrow at first,
stretching as it does along the Ister on its southern side and on the opposite
side along the mountain-side of the Hercynian Forest (for the land of the
Getae also embraces a part of the mountains), afterwards broadens out
towards the north as far as the Tyregetae; but I cannot tell the precise
boundaries. (7.3.10; 7.3.12)
He also writes that the Dacians, Getae, and Thracians spoke the same
language, information reaffirmed in documents of Cassius Dio and Pliny
the Elder.
The Romanian linguist I. I. Russu (1967, p. 33) proceeded in his lin-
guistic research on the assumption that the Getae-Dacian language was
closely related to Thracian. This close relation between Dacian and
Thracian languages came under scrutiny from the Bulgarian linguist
Vladimir I. Georgiev (1960, p. 45) whose objections were made on the
ground of the Dacian name of 47 towns ending in δαυα of which 28 are
on the Romanian territory, and the Thracian form παρα of which 37 (41)
are found only in Thrace; these arguments show that Dacian and Thracian
may have been, at least in some respects, two different languages, part of
the large group of common Indo-European. Unfortunately, no Dacian
language inscriptions have been discovered, and the limited direct testi-
mony of written documents from these languages are mostly toponyms,
hydronyms, and proper names, coming to us through Greek and Latin
alphabets, which makes it quite difficult to reach definite conclusions.
These languages, whether dialectal formations or independent, were cer-
tainly part of an Indo-European linguistic group, situated in close prox-
imity from southern Pannonia region, to the Carpathian and Balkan
Mountains to the Black Sea. As a result of the geographic proximity, the
economic exchanges and pastoralism, the Dacian-Getae together with
Mysian, Thracian, Dardanian, Illyrian, Macedonian, and Greeks were a
large group in close contact, forming alliances or fighting among them-
selves, sharing specialized vocabulary for commercial exchanges, in the
end, becoming the main substrata that underline the Balkan peoples of
today. As Mallory and Adams state: “Some uniform proto-language may
have been spoken over a geographically compact area at the same time
when their neighbors had already differentiated into different language
groups…” (Mallory & Adams, 2006, p. 445).
5 Daco-Romanian Language: An Indo-European Branch 31
[297]
[298]
[299]
[300]
[301]
[302]
[303]
[304]
[305]
[307]
[308]
Benham, Quart. J. Micr. Sci. xxxii. 1891, p. 325. See also Bourne
(nephridium of Polynoë), Tr. Linn. Soc. (Zool.), ii. 1883, p. 357;
Meyer, for nephridium of Terebellidae, Sabellidae, and Cirratulidae,
in Mt. Zool. Stat. Neapel, vii. 1887, p. 592.
[309]
[310]
[311]
[312]
[313]
In Coabangia (see p. 284) the anus is near the anterior end, on the
ventral surface.
[314]
[315]
[316]
[317]
[318]
[319]
[320]
[321]
[322]
Eisig, "Die Capitelliden," Fauna u. Flora G. v. Neapel, Monogr. xvi.
1887, p. 331.
[323]
[324]
[325]
[326]
[327]
[328]
[329]
[330]
[331]
[332]
[333]
[334]
[335]
[336]
[337]
"Challenger" Reports, vol. xii. 1885, "Polychaeta," p. 198; and Oka,
Zoolog. Centralbl. ii. 1895, p. 591.
[338]
[339]
Dalyell, The Powers of the Creator revealed, etc., vol. ii. 1853, p.
225 et seq.
[340]
[341]
[342]
[343]
See M‘Intosh, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (ser. 4) ii. 1868, p. 276.
[344]
[345]
[346]
[347]
Watson, Journ. R. Mic. Soc. 1890, p. 685; see also Dalyell, loc. cit.
ii. p. 195.
[348]
[349]
For pelagic forms, see Camille Viguier, Arch. de Zool. Expér. (ser.
2) iv. 1886, p. 347; also Reibisch, Die pelag. Phyllodociden u.
Typhloscoleciden d. Plankton Exped. 1895.
[350]
[351]
[352]
[353]
[354]
[355]
[357]
For a list of parasitic Polychaetes see St. Joseph, Ann. Sci. Nat.
(ser. 7) v. 1888, p. 141.
[358]
[359]
[360]
[361]
[362]
[363]
[364]
[365]
Meyer (Mt. Zool. Stat. Neapel, vii. 1887, p. 669, note) suggests
that the tentacular filaments of Cirratulids are really prostomial, but
have shifted back on to the peristomium, or even farther.
[366]
[367]
[368]
[369]
[370]
[371]
[372]
[373]
[374]
[375]
[377]
[378]
[379]
[380]
[381]
[382]
[383]
[384]
For literature, see Benham, Quart. J. Micr. Sci. xxxix. part 1, 1896,
p. 1.
[386]
[387]
[388]
[389]
[390]
[391]
[392]
For anatomy see Meyer, Mt. Zool. Stat. Neapel, vii. 1887.
[393]
[394]
[395]
Closely allied is Manayunkia Leidy, which occurs in fresh-water
lakes of America. Another fresh-water genus is Coabangia Giard,
which perhaps deserves the creation of a special family. The anus
is ventral and anterior. The chaetae are peculiarly arranged, dorsal
uncini being present only on four segments. The first body
segment carries a ventral bundle of five great "palmate" chaetae.
[396]
For the anatomy see Meyer, Mt. Stat. Neapel, vii. 1887; see also
above, p. 306.
[397]
[398]
[399]
Mt. Zool. Stat. Neapel, xii. 1896, p. 227; where, too, see literature.
[400]
[401]
Quart. J. Micr. Sci. (n.s.) vol. iv. 1864, p. 258; and v. pp. 7, 99.
[402]
[403]
[404]
Naturg. ein. Wurm-Arten d. süssen u. salzigen Wasser,
Copenhagen, 1771.
[405]
[406]
[407]
[408]
[409]
[410]
[411]
[412]
[413]
[414]
[416]
[417]
[418]
[419]
[420]
[421]
[422]
[423]
[424]
[425]
See my text-book of Zoogeography (Cambridge, 1895) for fuller
treatment.
[426]
[427]
[428]
[429]
Oxford, 1895.
[430]
[431]
[432]
[433]
Beddard, Trans. Roy. Soc. Edin. xxxv. 1890, p. 629, and xxxvi.
1892, p. 1.
[434]
A. G. Bourne, "On the Naidiform Oligochaeta," Quart. J. Micr. Sci.
xxxii. 1891, p. 335.
[435]
[436]
[437]
[438]
[439]
[440]
See Spencer, Proc. Roy. Soc. Vict. v. 1893, and Fletcher, P. Linn.
Soc. N.S.W. 1886-1888, for Australian forms; Rosa, Ann. Mus. civ.
Genova, vi. 1886, x. 1890, and xii. 1892, for Oriental species, etc.
[441]
[442]
[443]
[444]
Beddard, P. Z. S. 1885 and 1895, for Antarctic Acanthodrilids;
Michaelsen, in Jahrb. Hamburg. Anst. 1888-95, for Benhamia.
[445]
[446]
[447]
[448]
[449]
[450]
[451]
[453]
[454]
[455]
[456]
[457]
[458]
Loc. cit.
[459]
Quart. J. Micr. Sci. xxiv. 1884, p. 419; see also ibid. xxxiv. 1893, p.
545, which is mainly a criticism of Bolsius' additions to the very
considerable literature upon the Leech nephridium.
[460]
[461]
Zeitschr. wiss. Zool. lviii. 1894, p. 440; and Zool. Jahrb. Anat. iv.
1891, p. 697.
[462]
[463]
[464]
"Hirudinées de l'Italie," etc., Boll. Mus. Zool. Torino, vol. ix. 1894,
No. 192. See also Apathy, "Süsswasser-Hirudineen," Zool. Jahrb.
Syst. iii. 1888, p. 725.
[465]
[466]
[467]